So, I didn't realize how incredibly much I have missed volunteering with the FAU Office for Students with Disabilities!!! As soon as I walked into the office, I was flooded with smiling faces, greetings, hand shakes, hugs, and lots of catch-up conversations. :-) I ended up running into a bunch of students who I used to tutor when I was enrolled in FAU High School and was volunteering fot the Disabilities Office for high school hours in order to graduate. I saw one student in particular who I used to tutor in biology, and he used to say he was my big brother and I was his little sister. We were very close...I even met his mom over the years! As soon as he saw me, he ran up to me, gave me a hug, and said, "My little sister is back!" That was an amazing moment! Next, I ran into a girl who is blind who I also used to tutor in biology. As soon as I saw her, I said to her, "Hey girlie, it's Angelina!" She screamed, because she was soooo excited to know that I was back for the summer. Next, I saw two other students who I have been friends with since I was fifteen. Boy, the memories came back as sooon as we all started talking. Now, my past students are all seniors about to graduate from college, and one even is working towards his Master's degree and wants to become a grade school teacher for special needs students. I remember when I was a sophomore in high school and they were sophomores in college...we were growing and learning together as we still continue to do. Enough reminiscing...for now. :-)
Now for my service. I started out taking notes for a middle-aged woman in a Spanish class who was also taking the course with her daughter. I didn't question why she was unable to take notes for herself. I just knew that I was there to help her succeed in a course and to help her earn a higher education....even if its just by taking notes. She seemed pleasant and very thankful for a notetaker. We clicked right away, and I would help her during group discussions and whatnot by helping her formulate what she was trying to say in Spanish, because she seemed a little slow. I just assumed that she had a Learning Disability (LD), because I had previously worked with LD students in the past and am familiar with how they are. She told me she was unable to use her daughters notes, because she doesn't like the way her daughter takes notes. Because the class was only a 6 week course, the class met Monday-Thursday for 4 hours a day...looooong class, but still enjoyable. One day during lunch, she decided to confide in me. I had noticed that she has a scar on the back of her neck, but didn't really connect that with her possible disability. She told me that she has tumors in her brain and her spinal cord and has had surgery after surgery after surgery trying to be tumor/cancer-free, but the horrible buggers kept coming back. She said the doctors estimate she only has 2 months to live. Her goal before she spends time with God is to earn her Bachelor's Degree and spend time with her daughter....this is the LAST course she needs before both her and her daughter graduate. She said the most important thing in the world to her are her children, and because her daughter is in school, she gets the best of both worlds by taking the class with her...her Bachelor's degree and spending time with her daughter. After the first week, I noticed an incredibly abrupt change in her mood and behavior. She would be in the middle of formulating a sentence, and completely forget what she was going to say. I remember a specific example where she was going to ask me a question about the notes, and literally forgot my name, who she was, how to read, etc. Its as if she became a toddler again for 30 seconds. Every time an instance like this happened, she would say, "It's happening again...the tumors are taking control of me." This broke my heart knowing that there was nothing I could do for her except smile and tell her that everything was going to be fine. Surprisingly, she still had a very positive outlook on life.
The next day, I received a call from the Coordinator for Notetaking Services (my volunteer coordinator) saying that my student no longer wanted a notetaker for her Spanish course. When I inquired as to why, Michelle (my volunteer coordinator) told me that Sarah (name changed due to confidentiality) was extremely rude on the phone and hung up on Michelle, but Michelle assured me that she had never acted this way before and is not a rude person. Sarah's doctors informed the office that the tumors were in a place in her brain that controls emotions, so the tumors were literally controlling how she reacted towards people. Because I am no longer Sarah's notetaker, I don't really know how she is doing, but I do know that if God decides to invite her to Heaven in the next 2 months, she will be leaving this Earth in peace with her children and satisified that she earned her Bachelor's degree.
The next chapter of my SoS novel is very positive, in fact. I was reassigned to a Film and Documentary class for a student named Emily (name changed for confidentialy) who is bound to a wheelchair because she is paralyzed from the waist down. Emily also has very little control of her hands, stutters A LOT when she speaks, and takes a while to formulate her thoughts. I truly enjoy taking notes for Emily though, because she has such a happy spirit, great outlook on life, and has the determination to succeed and never lets her disabilities, mental OR physical, get her down. She thanks me everyday after class, and says she'll call me if she has any questions about the notes I took for her, but I haven't received any calls yet. :-) She's very intelligent, and aspires to become a world-reknown journalist someday. I look forward to many more classes with Emily and her joyful ways.
Finally, on the days that I am not a notetaker in class, I am working in the office as a secretary, test proctor, or simply whatever the students need me to do for them. They always say thank you even if I'm just helping them type up a small paragraph due to a physical disability, but what they don't realize is I will never be able to do for them what they do for me. They keep me humble, and make me realize how eternally grateful we should be for being born without any physical or mental impairments. They make me realize that life is too short to not be thankful for every passing moment that we are given. Thanks to my students at the FAU Office for Students with Disabilities, I am given hope, endurance to succeed, and a much more positive outlook on life everday that I interact with the amazing students and staff in this caring and peaceful office. I know for a fact, that even if I'm not doing Summer of Service, I will continually volunteer my time for this office every summer I can. I'm so excited for what the rest of this summer will bring. Thank you!
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